DEA Marijuana Rescheduling Hearing Delayed Until 2025, Agency Judge Rules

The Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) hearing on the Biden administration’s proposal to reschedule marijuana has been postponed until 2025, according to Marijuana Moment.

After DEA Administrator Anne Millgram approved over two dozen witnesses for the hearing on Monday, Chief Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) John Mulrooney issued a preliminary order on Thursday indicating that the information provided about those set to testify was inadequate. He requested additional details and potential availability for a formal hearing in January or February 2025.

When the Justice Department suggested moving cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III in March following a scientific review, advocates and stakeholders hoped the rule would be finalized this year. The DEA had scheduled the hearing for December 2—after the presidential election but before the January inauguration, which will bring an administrative change.

However, the latest order from Mulrooney clarifies that this will not happen.

The reason is that the DEA’s list of hearing participants sent to the ALJ’s office lacked “any indication in the four corners of the document as to whether the ‘participants’ support or oppose the [notice of proposed rulemaking] or how the ‘participants’ meet the ‘interested person’ definition set forth in the regulations,” according to the judge’s order.

“Indeed, the [Participant Letter] contains only a list of persons and organizations accompanied by one or more email addresses, without the benefit of notices of appearance, addresses, or even phone numbers,” it states.

The order from the DEA ALJ requires selected participants to provide such details by November 12. The DEA must also provide “its counsel(s) of record who will be appearing in these proceedings, as well as any known conflicts of interest that may require disclosure” on the same date.